Once Works Well was pure technology. Now it seeks merely to divert.
Pansy subjects - Verse! Opera! Domestic trivia! - are now commonplace.
The 300-word limit for posts is retained. The ego is enlarged

Sunday 7 February 2010

Alas, some are for the freezer

Kefta is a rare dish Chez Bonden because Mrs BB hates making “the little meat balls”. So imagine my delight when I found her engaged in the Herefordshire equivalent of what lady cigar-rollers do in Havana (but not between her thighs). When I left for the Sunday paper she’d done thirty, when I returned she was finishing the one-hundred-and-fiftieth. Already I was slavering, only to be told some were going into the freezer. There are limits to her indulgences.

Which reminds me of a previous post. In the sixties I was cycling home from London to our cheerless flat in Stoke Newington and saw a chalked-up sign: “Polish eggs, 1s 10d a dozen.” (That’s about 10p now.) I bought a dozen and asked Mrs BB to make me a dozen-egg omelette – a lifetime’s ambition. She refused but after much pleading finally conceded an eleven-egg omelette. Even now I still feel incomplete.

WORKS WELL, DOESN’T LOOK WELL. The plug for our kitchen sink can, if inserted skew-whiff, jam in the hole, requiring huge efforts to yank it free. The original chain broke long ago and my solution, as always, followed the principle: If it does the job who cares about the aesthetics? Mrs BB uses it under sufferance







BIKE PROGRESS My present bike, a nondescript, non-sporting job that cost about £200, nevertheless incorporates a feature that was a luxury item fifty years ago. That’s a quick-release hub which means I can take out the front wheel without resorting to spanners. Alas, for a variety of reasons, there’s no QR for the rear wheel. Guess which tyre is always the one that punctures.
Novel progress 10/2/10. Ch. 14: 3833 words. Chs. 1 - 13: 58,239 words. Comments: Clare transformed, steps into the future

13 comments:

Unknown said...

As I understand it Mr B does the washing up, which prsumably mean that Mrs B has only to spend a minimum amount of time at the sink.

The Crow said...

What is kefta?

Kitchen sink plug repair looks hunkie-dorie to me - right clever job.

The solution to the punctured tire/tyre is to switch the front one for the back, so that the one getting punctured is on the QR wheel. (TIC, firmly planted.)

;)

marja-leena said...

Congrats on the hard work to Mrs BB! I don't like making small meatballs either. But if one musts, save some for another day by freezing.

(All this witty repartee over here at WW leaves me tongue-tied...)

Rouchswalwe said...

Isn't it wonderful when somebody not only knows what your favourite dish is, but actually makes the effort to cook it for you. Mmm. Is Kefta served with a sauce? This is something new for me. What sort of ale goes well with this dish?

Lucy said...

Perhaps she is planning a kefta party. Can I come? Are they different from kofta?

Avus said...

I laughed aloud at the picture of kefta being rolled on the thighs!
Yes - it's always the back tyre, isn't it. With all the grease and complication of getting the wheel past the derailleur gear. It is almost a pleasure to remove a Sturmey Archer gear hubbed wheel in comparison.

Roderick Robinson said...

Plutarch: Quite true.

The Crow: A Moroccan dish also known as kofta. Small meat balls in peppery tomato sauce on bed of rice. Plug: You and I appear to have similar aesthetic standards. Wheels: they're not interchangeable: back one has five-sprocket gear cluster for derailleur system.

M-L: Not hard work - uncongenial work. The impulse to come up with a double entendre joke is very strong here.

RW (zS): Kefta: see above. Quite well-chilled lager (which I know you're not keen on).

Lucy: Dish taken from Robert Carrier's Great Dishes of the World back in the early sixties (serialised in The Sunday Times). For some reason he called it kefta (perhaps because he was Oz), then, and it's stuck with us.

Avus: One disadvantage with SA is it won't fit conventional drop-out rear forks. Appropriate slide-out forks are much rarer; I tried to spec latter when I bought the bike but it would have cost double.

Rouchswalwe said...

Would a Black Lager do?
P.S. I'm working on a session ale post especially for you.

Hattie said...

Hmm. I can see who's the neatnik around your place!

herhimnbryn said...

..all in a row. Mrs BB is a neat cook.

Roderick Robinson said...

RW (zS): I fear I can't keep up. I've never seen, much less drunk, a black lager. A dark Leffe would be OK, the lighter one even better. I look forward to be enlightened.

Hattie: Actually, I'm the neatnik. To the point of pyschological fracture. Anal, even.

HHB: A sort of edible abacus.

Eleanor said...

I would simply adore to read the hairstyling scene, my email address can be found on my profile page.

I'm delighted!! Although the fact that you wrote "Dunno" in my commentbox may be even more wonderful ;-)

It just occurred to me I may well be the first person to put a winking emoticon in your commentbox.

Roderick Robinson said...

Eleanor: I'm glad you enjoyed "Dunno". I find there's a lot of "Dunno" in my life at the moment.

I have received emoticons from other respondents but had no way of knowing whether they represented approval or drop dead. Now I know.

As to your email suggestion, see my next post.